Bern or Nice?

Bern's version of a beach day is the Aare: walk upstream from the Marzili lido, jump in and let the green current sweep you back past the Federal Palace. It is memorable but cold, strong and only for confident swimmers, and calm lake bathing means a train out to Thun.

Nice puts the sea at the end of every street, with about 7km of pebble shore and clear water warm enough from June into October. Loungers and water shoes help on the stones, and sand is easy to reach in Villefranche, around Cap Ferrat or at Juan-les-Pins.

Nice has a real regional kitchen, Ligurian in spirit, and you can taste it cheaply in the street: socca hot from the wood oven, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and pan bagnat, with the Cours Saleya market and local Bellet wine alongside. The tourist terraces on the promenade are the trap to avoid.

Bern is hearty and traditional rather than varied. Expect the Berner Platte, rösti and fondue in guildhall rooms and arcade cellars, good Emmental cheese and excellent chocolate, but a small-city range and high bills.

The two are evenly matched, but the appeal is different. Bern's great sight is the whole old town, a UNESCO-listed loop of arcades, fountains, the Zytglogge and the Minster, with the Paul Klee centre and the Einstein flat adding unexpected depth.

Nice is about twentieth-century art and layered history: the Matisse and Chagall museums in Cimiez, MAMAC, the Italianate lanes of Vieux Nice and the Belle Époque villas and Russian cathedral of the old winter resort. It fills two or three days where Bern fills two.

Nice has the livelier evenings, though neither is a club city. Vieux Nice fills with wine bars and pubs whose crowds spill into the lanes, and in summer the beach clubs and promenade keep people out late; serious clubbing means a trip to Monaco or Cannes.

Bern's nights happen in vaulted cellar bars under the arcades and around Aarbergergasse, with the Reitschule for rough-edged late parties. Weekends are busy enough, but weeknights end early.

Both are superb bases for the outdoors, in contrasting ways. From Bern the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are about an hour by train, with cable cars, high hiking and skiing, plus gentle walking in the Emmental and along the Aare.

Nice is where mountains meet the sea: coastal paths round Cap Ferrat, corniche cycling, the Mercantour within about two hours and water sports from the shore. Bern is stronger for alpine grandeur, Nice for mixing a hike with a swim.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference lies in where the lines lead. Bern sits at the hub of the Swiss railways, so a week of outings can cover the whole country: a large city such as Lucerne or Basel one day, little walled Murten or the cheese dairies at Gruyères the next, then a boat on Lake Thun. Each trip feels like a change of region, and some cross the language border into French-speaking Switzerland.

Nice's outings run along a single stretch of coast and the hills just above it. You can go east to Monaco and Menton, west to Antibes and Cannes, up to perched Èze or Saint-Paul-de-Vence, or over the border to Italian market towns. The sea and the light are the same almost everywhere, so the variety comes from art, gardens and village life rather than from a change of landscape.

Bern is the easier city with children. The bear park, the woodland Dählhölzli zoo, the natural history dioramas and the funicular up to the Gurten playground are all close together in a calm, safe place. The one warning is the river, which is for strong swimmers only.

Nice has the splash fountains of the Promenade du Paillon and Parc Phoenix, and the sea itself is a big draw. Pebbles, summer heat and stepped old town lanes make it a little harder going with small children.

Bern is about as effortless as a city gets. You can cross the centre from station to bear park in about twenty minutes under cover of the arcades, the trams run to the minute and the main station sits right at the top of the old town. Only the climbs up from the Aare take some effort.

Nice works well without a car too, with a flat walkable core and a tram straight from the airport, but museums in Cimiez need a bus and coastal trains and roads get packed in summer.

Nice offers somewhat more range. Avenue Jean Médecin covers the high street, the streets around rue Paradis hold luxury fashion houses, and Vieux Nice sells olive oil, soaps and Provençal fabrics, with a Monday flea market on the Cours Saleya.

Bern's arcaded streets are lovely to browse for watches, chocolate and the antiques and design shops down cellar steps, but there is little fashion or luxury.

Neither is cheap, but Bern is far harder on the wallet. Hotels, meals and even a terrace beer cost well above most of Europe, so budget travellers lean on supermarket lunches, the free guest transport pass and free pleasures such as the river paths and Federal Palace tours.

Nice is expensive by southern standards, especially by the sea in summer. Cheap trams and coastal trains, low museum fees, socca and market picnics bring it within reach, and spring and late autumn are kinder still.

The two are on a similar regional level. Bern offers opera and drama in German at the Stadttheater, the symphony in the Casino, experimental work at the Dampfzentrale and the Gurtenfestival on its hill in July.

Nice has its red-and-gold opera house, French theatre, one of Europe's oldest jazz festivals each July and the February Carnival with its flower battles. Either fills an evening or two, but neither is a reason to choose the city.

Bern is the more restful of the two. The pace is slow, Sundays are hushed, and a large thermal bath on the western edge plus a hammam in the old town give real spa time, with mountain spa hotels in the Oberland close by.

Nice relaxes through its Riviera rhythm, an early swim and an evening stroll on the promenade, but spa time means hotel treatment rooms or thalassotherapy along the coast, and high summer is crowded and hot.